There are a lot of rumors floating around at all times.
Last week, a thread on MMA.tv -- a popular forum -- hinted that Zuffa would continue on its recent spending spree and purchase flagging MMA titan, PRIDE FC, took the cake.
As Zach Arnold at FightOpinion.com put it:
"It sounds like every UFC fanboy's greatest dream and every PRIDE fanboy's worst nightmare."
If it did turn out to be true, it would be the single biggest story to hit the industry in its relatively short history.
And, without question, the king of all rumors turned fact.
I didn't feel the need to write about it here earlier because it didn't seem credible. It was just an outrageous scenario with questionable sources.
But, Arnold now offers up some interesting nuggets as to the reasons a deal between the two promotions wouldn't make sense in the first place.
Here they are:
- UFC purchasing PRIDE could bring a bright spotlight from both American (FBI) and Japanese (Tokyo Metropolitan Police & Kanagawa Police) authorities.
- The fight market in Japan is collapsing inch by inch on a monthly basis.
- Owning another separate company would stretch resources and potentially hurt UFC in the long-run.
- PRIDE's VTR (video tape) library has very limited value in the American marketplace.
- There is little value left in buying PRIDE simply for fighter contracts.
I recommend checking out the explanations for each of the above points at FightOpinion.com.
Zach is on another level when it comes to MMA business -- something we here certainly don't pretend to espouse.
These smart points are well worth considering the next time a dumb MMA hoax this large takes the forums by storm.
And, there are more right around the corner ... for sure.
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